Bees first began to creep into Charlie Koenen’s life in 2002. Today his previous careers in computer programming and consulting might as well belong to someone else altogether. Koenen is a beevangelist through and through. “I never would have predicted the path, but the importance is really astonishing - a beehive when it’s operating. That’s the amazement I want to give everybody,” he says. In 2009 Koenen introduced a system called the Beepod. He says it works with bees naturally by spreading the colony out sideways, rather than up as it would be in traditional stacked boxes. His aim was to use the system to educate people about bees. The Beepod is one of three different systems atop Redeemer Lutheran Church’s small rooftop terrace. As if by cue, a visitor appears. Susan Martyn lives in Toledo, Ohio now, but her husband was pastor here back in the 1970s. She’s fascinated by the bees – but fearful at the same time. “I’m not going to be stung am I? Because I’m allergic,” Martyn says.